NEW VOICES: Broad Opposition to Reinstating New York’s Death Penalty

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney joined a lengthy list of high-pro­file New Yorkers tes­ti­fy­ing that they oppose rein­state­ment of New York’s death penal­ty. During a leg­isla­tive hear­ing in Albany, Carney tes­ti­fied that New York would be best served by aban­don­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and sen­tenc­ing offend­ers to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. He cit­ed the high costs of the death penal­ty and the spe­cial pro­tec­tions that would need to be put in place. (Albany Times-Union, February 9, 2005).

Lawmakers have held five days (con­clud­ing Feb. 11, 2005) of hear­ings to gath­er opin­ion on what should be done with the state’s death penal­ty. Among the dozens of indi­vid­u­als who have offered expert tes­ti­mo­ny oppos­ing rein­state­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment are the following:

• Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan District Attorney
• Andrew Cuomo, for­mer Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Bill Kurtis, Court TV and A&E Anchor
• The Honorable Gerald Kogan, Former Florida Chief Justice
• Thomas Sullivan, Co-Chair of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment
• Kate Lowenstein, daugh­ter of slain New York Congressman Allard Lowernstein
• U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy, wife of a mur­der vic­tim killed dur­ing the Long Island Railroad shooting
  
• Bettina B. Plevan, President of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• Anthony Miranda, retired New York Police Department Sergeant and Representative of the National Latino Officers Association
• The Most Rev. Howard J. Hubbard, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany